Oot and Aboot: A Canadian Wanderer

I am in the middle of moving desks this week as everyone gets organized for the students to come back on March 3rd for the new school year. In all this chaos, I tend to check both desks daily for anything people may have left for me in my absence. Today I came in and found two new teacher’s resource books on my desk from the district. Distributed to all teachers in the district, they are supposed to help spice up our lessons and add to our treasure chest of ideas. Always on the lookout for activities to get my kids motivated, I flipped through the first book, Elementary Communication Games, as I checked my email. Skimming through the activities I noticed the standard introductory English themes: directions, food, feelings, housing…and then just as I was about to close the book for a more thorough examination later, something caught my eye in an activity called “Chit-Chat”.

The activity is a role-play whereby you give students certain role cards that lists their age, marital status, occupation, hobbies, etc. The students are also given a ‘Find Someone Who…” survey sheet where they go on an information search asking for and giving personal information based on their given roles. Among the possible roles you can find:

Sam Steves: The judo practicing fireman
Celia Parsons: The doctor with a penchant for pottery
Harry Myers: The hard-working bank manager

And my absolute favorite...

Tony Owen
Age: 24
Lives in Brighton
Not married
Job: Student
Hobbies: Drinking

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this activity it exactly “Print and Go” for my classroom! Cracked me up though :)

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